Really Effective Eco-Resolutions for Earth Day

Why It's Good:

Despite the recent spate of encouraging news from the green front, many of us still occasionally fall prey to eco-anxiety when we start thinking about the current state of our environment. But by focusing on the small changes we can make in our everyday lives, we empower ourselves to make socially responsible decisions and choices that will eventually lead to big improvements for our planet.

Why It's Green:

By driving less, flying direct and canceling junk mail, we’re actually reducing carbon emissions, fighting climate change and saving trees. (Did we also mention that we're saving ourselves a lot of time, money and aggravation in the process?)

What Are Your Green Goals? 20 Earth Day Eco-Resolutions

Here are some of the most effective everyday changes you can make this spring—or longer—to reduce your environmental impact, save energy, and help curb climate change (with the biggest impact ones listed first, in the top ten; experts at the NRDC and The Union of Concerned Scientists assisted us in compiling this list). Start by considering the ones you feel will be easier to follow through on, suggests Jennifer Powers of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's like dieting, you've got to choose the changes you think will be most successful for you."—Jen Uscher

1. Reduce the number of miles you drive and increase how often you walk, carpool, bike, or take public transportation. Plus, look into telecommuting one day a week. According to the Consumers Union, not driving to work one day a week can reduce your CO2 emissions by about 400 pounds per year.

2. Take fewer flights and pick a vacation destination that's closer to home. Plan a teleconference rather than flying to a meeting (you can save about a literal ton of carbon emissions by skipping that round-trip New York to Los Angeles flight). But if you must fly, book direct flights because a large percentage of carbon emissions are generated during take-off and landing.

3. Eat one less meat meal a week. You may already be cutting back on red meat for health (or humane) reasons, but meat production also has a big impact on the earth. According to the book The Consumers Guide to Effective Environmental Choices from the Union of Concerned Scientists, one pound of red meat is responsible for 20 times the land use, five times the water use, and three times the greenhouse gas pollution compared with a portion of pasta with the same nutritional value.

4. Find out the most important steps you can take to make your home more energy efficient—for instance, where you have air leaks that can be sealed—by doing an audit. Call your local utility and ask if they offer free or discounted home energy audits. Then plug those leaks around windows and doors with caulking, sealing, or weather stripping to save ten percent or more on your energy bill.

5. Conserve hot water by installing a low-flow (2.5 gallons per minute or less) showerhead. It can save you up to $145 a year on your electricity bill, according to the Energy Star program.

6. In the market for a new fridge, TV, dryer, or other appliances? Look for the Energy Star label, which shows it meets strict energy efficiency standards set by the US Environmental Protection Agency or the US Department of Energy. Energy Star qualified refrigerators, for instance, are at least 15 percent more efficient than conventional models.

7. Call your power company and ask whether you can opt to buy some or all of your supply from renewable sources such as wind, hydropower, geothermal, or solar (it usually costs a few extra dollars a month). This helps support the development of facilities that generate energy from greener sources.

8. Choose fruits and veggies that carry the USDA organic label, since they're grown according to a set of government standards that prevent the use of most conventional pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming reduces toxic water pollution and soil erosion and increases biodiversity.

9. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. Energy Star qualified ones use about 75 percent less energy and last up to ten times longer than standard incandescent bulbs. You can save $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime. Since CFLs contain a small amount of mercury, though, it's important to recycle them (go to www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling to find local recycling programs).

10. Save trees and reduce waste by canceling your junk mail. Americans threw out 5.8 million tons of advertising mail in 2005, according to the EPA. Register with the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service and your address will be removed from advertising mailing lists for three years. And go to Catalogchoice.org to cancel catalogs you no longer wish to receive.

11. Switch to toilet paper and tissues with recycled content. According to the NRDC, if every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with a recycled one, we could save 423,900 trees.

12. Slay the energy vampires. In the average home, 75 percent of all electricity used to power electronics is consumed after the products are turned off. Plug your stereo, television, iPod charger, and printer into a power strip and turn off the switch when you're not using them to cut off the electricity. Or try The Smart Strip, which automatically shuts off the flow of power after you turn off your electronics.

13. Give up bottled water. According to the NRDC, tests show it's not necessarily safer than tap water, plus the manufacturing and shipping of the bottles gobbles up petroleum and energy and most bottles wind up in landfills or incinerators. Save money and use a refillable stainless steel bottle instead.

14. Donate or recycle your old cell phones and other electronics, but don't throw them in the trash because they often contain heavy metals and other toxins. According to the EPA, monitors and TVs can contain between two and eight pounds of lead. To find recycling drop-off sites near you, go to Earth911.org

15. Plant trees in your yard to absorb CO2 and slash your electricity bills. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, trees (planted on the south and west sides of your home) will keep your house cool in the summer and let the sun warm your home in the winter when the leaves fall off. Just three properly placed trees can save $100-$250 annually in cooling and heating costs.

16. Don't get divorced. Researchers at Michigan State University found that in 2005, divorced households in the U.S. could have saved more than 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water if their resource use had been comparable to married households.

17. Live in a city. Many people associate cities with concrete and smog, but urban dwellers actually save energy and land when compared to their suburban counterparts because they live in smaller spaces, and walk or take public transportation with greater frequency. In fact, the average New York City resident produces 7.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, while the average American produces 24.5 metric tons.

18. Choose quality over quantity. Occasionally splurging on well-made, classic clothes, accessories, or furniture you'll keep forever is better for the planet than making more frequent, less pricey (but disposable) purchases. You'll also be more likely to pass them along to someone else someday.

19. Cook with smaller appliances. Your oven (or stovetop) isn't always the best option. You can save energy by using an electric kettle (instead of a teapot on the stove) or a Crock-Pot (instead of simmering food in a pot on the stove). And for cooking smaller portions of food, a toaster uses less energy than the oven.

20. And if you're really dedicated, cancel your cable (ouch!). Digital cable boxes and DVRs are especially inefficient gadgets. According to the NRDC, cable and satellite boxes consume nearly the same amount of energy when they're in ready mode (i.e. switched “off”) as when they're on. C'mon, you can catch In Treatment and 30 Rock on your computer!